{"id":630810,"date":"2025-12-13T22:58:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T22:58:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/630810\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T22:58:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T22:58:37","slug":"mark-sykes-injury-latest-as-gerhard-struber-sorry-for-bristol-city-players-after-coventry-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/630810\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Sykes injury latest as Gerhard Struber ‘sorry’ for Bristol City players after Coventry loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bristol City winger Mark Sykes was withdrawn at half-time during the Robins’ frustrating defeat to Coventry City at the CBS Arena<\/p>\n

18:26, 13 Dec 2025Updated 18:30, 13 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

Bristol City’s Mark Sykes challenges Coventry City’s Ephron Mason-Clark (Image: PA)<\/p>\n

Mark Sykes was withdrawn at half-time during Bristol City’s defeat to Coventry City after he felt his quad, Gerhard Struber has confirmed, with the Robins boss admitting he felt “a little bit sorry” for his squad after their loss against the Sky Blues.<\/p>\n

The Reds stretched their winless run to three matches as they were beaten 1-0 by Frank Lampard’s side<\/a> at the CBS Arena on Saturday afternoon. Despite City’s best efforts, Ephron Mason-Clarke’s second-half strike proved to be enough for Coventry to claim all three points<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Struber’s side had come close to falling behind moments before what proved to be the winner when Bobby Thomas headed onto the post. The Robins were unable to fully clear the danger<\/a> in the seconds that followed, and in a scruffy fashion, Mason-Clarke was able to turn home from close range.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

OPINION<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Coventry City 1-0 Bristol City reaction: Reds extend winless run with defeat at CBS Arena<\/a><\/p>\n

Having started the contest at right wing-back, Sykes didn’t emerge for the second half against the Sky Blues, with Haydon Roberts taking his place<\/a> and swapping flanks with Ross McCrorie. That decision wasn’t tactical, but it is not yet clear the extent of the Ireland international’s injury.<\/p>\n

“No, he feels a little bit, the quad,” Struber told Bristol Live<\/a> after the full-time whistle. “I think we have a little bit of a domino effect at the moment.<\/p>\n

“We have not so many players available, we have to bring players sometimes in a really risky moment, and we know normally the one or other player would need more rest today. With him, this was also in the end a protecting situation, but Haydon Roberts did a really good job.”<\/p>\n

“We will see what is in the end the outcome from the scan,” the head coach added. “We want to make a scan with him. How we he described this right now was not so bad, but in the end, muscles.<\/p>\n

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“As soon as a player realises something on the muscle, it’s normally always the little bit the break. We have to look for a deeper answer, but I hope it’s not bad and he is ready against Middlesbrough.”<\/p>\n

With Sykes on the field, the Robins thought they had taken the lead when, with a little over half an hour played, Sinclair Armstrong fired into the back of the net<\/a>. Before the celebrations could truly begin, however, the whistle was blown with the referee feeling the forward had handled the ball.<\/p>\n

Although Coventry started the second half on the front foot and deserved their lead, City couldn’t have come much closer to pulling level in the closing exchanges. Both Adam Randell and Fally Mayulu<\/a> saw close-range efforts saved by Carl Rushworth, with the latter denied deep in second-half stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Understandably, the fact that his side had come so close to claiming a point against the league leaders left Struber disappointed come the full-time whistle. However, the head coach was keen to reflect on the positive aspects of his team’s performance.<\/p>\n

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“In the end, it’s a frustration,” the City boss explained. “I would say we prepared the boys in exactly in this direction today. We know they have an outstanding physical power; we could see this on the field in the second phase.<\/p>\n

“We defended, most of the time, on a really good level. Against a team like that, to defend – also with our set-up today – the boys did it on a great level. We have, in the end, enough chances so that we bring points home from here.<\/p>\n

“I feel a little bit sorry for my boys; when you invest so much, have a big effort, and you drive home without points, it’s always a disappointment. On the same time, I think we can take from this game again, very many good things about what level we can be [at].”<\/p>\n

Defeat at the CBS Arena leaves the Reds 11th in the Championship after 21 matches, with another chance to get back to winning ways against high-flying Middlesbrough<\/a> next weekend.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bristol City suffer narrow defeat to league leaders Coventry City<\/a>READ MORE: Sinclair Armstrong makes exciting Bristol City declaration as striker sets out World Cup ‘dream’<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bristol City winger Mark Sykes was withdrawn at half-time during the Robins’ frustrating defeat to Coventry City at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630811,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,2686,748,393,14590,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-630810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-football-league-championship","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115714741923176691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630810\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}